Nathan Handwerker

Nathan Handwerker
Born	(1892-06-14)June 14, 1892 Galicia
Died	Florida
Occupation	Restaurateur
Known for	Nathan's Famous

Nathan Handwerker (June 14, 1892 – March 24, 1974) was a entrepreneur who immigrated from Eastern Europe, and who is known for founding the Nathan's Famous brand of restaurants specializing in hot dogs.

Biography

Handwerker was born in Galicia, a one-time kingdom roughly at the site of what became the Poland-Ukraine border. One of 13 children of a poor Jewish shoemaker, he immigrated to the United States in 1912. Handwerker found work as a delivery boy and later obtained a job slicing rolls of bread at Feltman's German Gardens, a restaurant in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York. The restaurant sold franks (hot dogs) for 10 cents each.

By one account, Handwerker was encouraged by singing waiters Eddie Cantor and Jimmy Durante to go into business in competition with Feltman's; as United Press International noted in 1974, "There are many stories about Nathan and how the business began, but this is the way he told it..." The company's official history does not mention the encouragement of those two entertainers. Nathan and Ida spent their life savings of $300 to begin the business. That same year, with $300, Handwerker and his new wife, Ida Handwerker, opened a small hot dog stand with a two-foot grill on the corner of Surf and Stillwell Avenues in Coney Island. They spiced their hot dogs with Ida's secret recipe and sold them for a nickel.

Handwerker named his previously unnamed hot dog stand Nathan's Hot Dogs in 1921 after Sophie Tucker, then a singer at the nearby Carey Walsh's Cafe, made a hit of the song "Nathan, Nathan, Why You Waitin?"

The food stand developed into the fast food chain Nathan's Famous, spearhead by his son, Murray Handwerker.

On March 23, 1974, Nathan Handwerker suffered a heart attack at his home in North Port Charlotte, Florida. He died March 24, 1974, per differing accounts at either St. Joseph's Hospital in Port Charlotte, Florida, or at Sarasota General Hospital, in Sarasota, Florida. He was buried at Mt. Lebanon Cemetery in Glendale, Queens, New York.